Further Exploration of the Factorium

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

What's Behind the Name? - Company Etymologies

Today's list of 10 companies and the etymology of their names is as follows:

1. Hyundai: The name connotes the sense of 'Modernity' in Korean.

2. IBM: First named by Thomas John Watson Sr. and the present name is a short from of International Business Machines.

3. ICICI: Short Form of Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India.

4. Intel: Short Form of Integrated Electronics with the 'Int' from Integrated and 'El' from Electronics.

5. Infosys: Short Form for Information Systems with the 'Info' from Information and 'Sys' from System.

6. KFC: Short Form of the original name Kentucky Fried Chicken. The previous name was replaced with KFC to avoid the unhealthy connonations of the word 'Fried'.

7. Kia Motors: The name 'Kia' literally means 'Rising From Asia' in the Hanja Language.

8. Lego: It is the combination of the Danish word 'Leg Godt' which means 'Play Well'.

9. Lenovo: Portmanteau of words 'Le' (derived from previous name Legend) and 'Novo' which translates to 'New' in Latin.

10. L Oreal: This present day name originated from 'Aureole', which was the name given to an innovative hair-colour formula developed by Eugene Schuller, A French Chemist.

No comments:

Post a Comment